Early this fall, OL's Content Editor, Alex Robinson, spent some time in Southern Minnesota hunting crows. When he returned from the field, he handed off three dressed breasts to me and said, "I dare you to make these taste good." After a little research (which of course included the origins of the rhyme “…four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie,” and a visit to the pages of a 1940s edition of “Joy of Cooking”), my friend Toufik Halami and I set out to recreate a hearty, stick to your ribs, old world wild meat and vegetable “pye.” The resulting flavor and textures of our blackbird pie were nothing short of scrumptious. To my surprise, the breast meat was quite tender, and similar in flavor and texture to beef when prepared as a Yankee Pot Roast. The wild crow was neither gamey nor chewy, thanks to a simple hard cider brine I tried in advance, and a slow braise once it was nested inside the sealed, flaky golden crust. Here’s how to make your own.